Purely for purposes of demonstration, I’ve installed the “Let it snow” plugin.  Yes, it’s topical and festive, but…

Are you reading this or are you watching the snowflakes drift prettily across the image above?

Whatever you build your website with, if you include anything that moves, that is what will grab and hold your visitor’s attention. So it had better be really essential to what you want your visitors to know.  If it’s not, ditch it – keep it simple and your message very clear and immediate.

I think I’ll leave this in place for the next couple of weeks, though – just to help get the message across ;-)

And thanks to Aen Tan for the plugin and to Sean Duran for the tweak that means you only see this on the home page!

14 Responses to Let it snow?

  1. Babs says:

    Now if you reach this blog post direct, and not via the home page, you won’t see what I’m talking about!

    Go on – take a look at the home page…

  2. Babs says:

    Now if you reach this blog post direct, and not via the home page, you won’t see what I’m talking about!

    Go on – take a look at the home page…

  3. Haha it reminds me of geocities sites from the early 90s!

    Definitely too distracting :)

  4. Haha it reminds me of geocities sites from the early 90s!

    Definitely too distracting :)

  5. I’ve seen a fair few sites with WP ‘snow’ installed, as I’m sure everyone else has – and it’s definitely way too distracting.

    As a rule moving things have to be very subtle otherwise they cause huge distractions!

    Thats why we opted for a sublte background featuring little xmas trees (as well as a new ‘merry xmas’ image in our header slideshow)!

  6. I’ve seen a fair few sites with WP ‘snow’ installed, as I’m sure everyone else has – and it’s definitely way too distracting.

    As a rule moving things have to be very subtle otherwise they cause huge distractions!

    Thats why we opted for a sublte background featuring little xmas trees (as well as a new ‘merry xmas’ image in our header slideshow)!

  7. Nothing wrong with retro, and I think it’s a great example!

  8. Nothing wrong with retro, and I think it’s a great example!

  9. Babs says:

    I’ve switched off the snow now, for anyone visiting this blog post. Until next December, perhaps…

  10. Babs says:

    I’ve switched off the snow now, for anyone visiting this blog post. Until next December, perhaps…

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